Drinks with ‘Bitters, Gin, Lemons’

Is an alcoholic drink made with gin and bitters, as enjoyed in colonial Malaya. The name means “bitter gin” in Malay.

The recipe, according to the food and beverage service of the Raffles Hotel, is 1½ ounces of gin and ½ ounce of Angostura bitters. At least one book on drinks from the 1930s describes it as identical to a pink gin, which would imply considerably less bitters.

Referenced often by the writer W. Somerset Maugham. For example his short story, “P. & O.” (Copyright 1926), Maugham’s character Gallagher, an Irishman who had lived in the Federated Malay States for 25 years, orders the drink. Gin pahit appears in several other Maugham stories, including “Footprints in the Jungle” , “The Book-Bag”, both set in Malaya, and in the novels “The Narrow Corner” (opening line of Chapter xviii), and in “The Outstation” (Two Malay boys,…, came in, one bearing gin pahits,..).

Ingredients

• 1½ ounces of gin
• ½ ounce of Angostura bitters

Preparation:

• Fill a glass with Angostura bitters and gin.

A bijou is a mixed alcoholic drink composed of gin, vermouth, and chartreuse. Bijou means “jewel” in French. This cocktail is called Bijou because it combines the colors of three jewels: gin for diamond, vermouth for ruby, and chartreuse for emerald. An original-style Bijou is made pousse-café—the colored liquids are layered rather than mixed, to create the “jewel” appearance. More frequently, what would have been a bijou cocktails is served with the ingredients mixed together, which is called an amber dream for the resulting color.

Ingredients:

• 3 parts Gin
• 1 part Green Chartreuse
• 1 part Sweet Vermouth
• Dash orange bitters

Preparation:

Stir in mixing glass with ice and strain. Pour everything but the cherry in a mixing glass that is filled with ice. Stir gently for a few seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry. Serve chilled.